Descripción general del proyecto

The BAe Military Aircraft division is an example of the use of an office system for administrative support, which had unanticipated strategic benefits. Each of the highly

independent businesses of British Aerospace does its own IS planning; however, BAe as a whole had decided in 1986 to standardise on DEC, although IBM DISOSS was still in use at some sites. Bridges had been built between the different businesses, although they do not ordinarily need to communicate except in customer-supplier relationships. BAe has a private global network for messaging, but this was used abroad mainly by travelling staff. The Military Aircraft division occupied six sites, employing 3000 people in 1990. The finance and technical departments already had information systems.

Initiation

Plans were developed in 1985 for office automation covering two sites and 1200 users in Kingston and Weybridge, partly because the limits of the capacity of the existing VAX had been reached in any case and would have had to be supplemented by another VAX. Kingston was already running All-in-One for 200 users. The plan was to provide individual office support to management and professional staff and their secretaries, to provide access from anywhere within BAe via the internal communications network and worldwide by use of dial up links, and to provide managers with access to general and national business information. Links were to be provided so that users at these sites could communicate with other sites, including non-All-in- One services (an emulator allowed connection to ICL services and a DECnet/SNA gateway allowed connection to IBM).

Objectives

It was recognised that the system would be difficult to cost-justify, but OA was anticipated to be cheaper than meeting the demand for computer facilities separately. Cost reduction was important because government contracts were no longer on a cost-plus basis. The objectives for the system were to increase administrative and management productivity, control staff costs, reduce paper, and increase communications. The IT manager also saw it as a way of controlling PC use, and saving valuable data otherwise lost on PCs. But investment was on the whole an ’act of faith’.

Design

The system installed was based on DEC equipment and All-in-One. Telex, phone messages, and external document transfer were available from computer, and they were looking forward to having fax and telephone on as well. The system had few links with manufacturing. Small applications were developed centrally for user departments.

Outcomes

The IT manager found it difficult to evaluate quantitative benefits but secretarial and other administrative staff had been reduced. There had been no organizational change except for the role of the secretary, who had become more of an administrative officer. ’Even’ senior managers were beginning to use the management information systems. There had been an estimated improvement of close to 7% in management productivity, but this had not resulted in there being 7% fewer managers, and the whole question was regarded as a joke. The OS could facilitate organizational change by improving internal communication downward, but they have in any case been going towards a more open system of management. The division had not yet got to the sharing of information throughout the organization.

Conclusion

This was basically a generic OA system with some intraorganizational links but otherwise little integration and which was not perceived strategically. There were however benefits which could be regarded as strategic, including better decision-making and timeliness. The Ministry of Defence and foreign governments were increasing their demands for information from suppliers of military equipment. The office system made it easier to put together proposals for contracts, resulting in better bids put in as late as possible. One contract gained in this way could pay for the whole system. This result was seen as incidental to the OS, whereas it could have been the rationale for investment.

2. GKN GROUP SERVICES 1988

Initiation, Objectives and Implementation

GKN Group Services at Group Headquarters Administration began implementing an interdepartmental office system at corporate headquarters in 1983 with a DTI grant. There was no cost justification; the objectives were to improve communications, timeliness, and quality of

information. Implementation had been incremental, department by department, and voluntary - no department was forced to be on the system.

Design

The Xionics OS was a text-based database system with three levels, corporate,

departmental, and individual user group directories. There was access to external databases via Telecom Gold. Otherwise the system was not integrated. GKN’s operating divisions didn’t have and didn’t want an OS. Xionics was not compatible with any other system. Group HQ could not interact with their own IBM mainframe (for data processing). They could only transfer text via Telecom Gold, and had to communicate with their subsidiaries by fax and telex. Consequently they were looking in the future to Unix, shared databases, and networks.

Outcomes

Despite its limited integration, the system supported that part of the corporate strategy which involved growth by acquisition. Takeover bids were put together on a project basis at corporate HQ, with teams from the legal, corporate finance, taxation, and business development departments working together. Project directories would be set up for the user group on each bid, which could be put together more efficiently and quickly on the OS. Therefore, this was a good example of computer-supported group working on strategic projects, although the term itself was not used.

3. TETRAPAK 1988